Sebastião Salgado - an exhibition and encounter!

December 6, 2014

Each year TASIS photography students study and report on different photographers - past and present. It is no surprise that many of the Brazilian students choose to report on Sebastião Salgado, a Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist. This fall there were two trips to Milan to view Salgado's exhibition at the Palazzo della Ragione.

Sebastião Salgado might be one of the most important documentary photographers of our time. His exhibition, Genesis, includes more than two hundred photographs from the tropical forest of the Amazon, the Congo, Indonesia, and New Guinea to the glaciers of Antarctica, and the deserts of Africa. Genesis is a photographic journey across five continents with beautiful black and white images. The students who were lucky enough to get a seat on the van said "it was an amazing exhibition - there were almost too many photographs to take in."

As it happens the exhibition also opened in Brazil this past month, and former TASIS student Pietro Lago sent a photograph of himself with Selgado and his wife. Lucky guy!

TASIS in Motion

August 27, 2014

If you follow TASIS on social media you likely have seen one of Milo Zanecchia ’08’s videos chronicling the Global Service Program’s recent trips to Malawi and Cambodia. You may have also been moved by the music, by Alex Zanecchia ’02, a Berklee College of Music grad. Since 2012, the brothers have been collaborating on over a dozen short films that have evoked emotional and positive responses from viewers all over the world. They've just completed TASIS in Motion, a video that showcases the best of what our campus and programs have to offer. We hope you enjoy it!

An introduction to TASIS The American School in Switzerland http://switzerland.tasis.com Produced by TASIS Alumni Milo Zanecchia '08 (Video) and Alex Zanecchia '02 (Music) http://www.milozanecchia.com http://www.alexzanecchia.com

TASIS Literary Magazine - Vox Populi

June 11, 2014

The Vox Populi 2013-2014 is hot off the presses. Beautiful artwork, writing, and photography from TASIS faculty and students is included in this issues. Congrats to Faculty Advisor Todd Matthew and his Vox crew!

Good film about creativity

June 2, 2014

Inspiring Creativity is a short film created by Liberatum, directed by Pablo Ganguli and Tomas Auksas, and presented by illy, featuring 21 artists and cultural figures from art, fashion, film, design, technology and music. The film is an insider's perspective on inspiration from the minds of leading creative personalities including: Diana Picasso, Academy Award winner Hans Zimmer, Inez van Lamsweerde, Vinoodh Matadin, Academy Award nominee James Franco, Joan Smalls, Johan Lindeberg, Jonas Mekas, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Nico Muhly, Karen Elson, Karim Rashid, Klaus Biesenbach, Academy Award nominee Lee Daniels, Lola Montes Schnabel, Marilyn Minter, Mark Romanek, Tracey Emin, Moby, Paul Schrader, and TED founder Richard Saul Wurman. Through the authentic interpretation and responses from these individuals, the overall project communicates what inspires creative thinking and behaviors for nurturing inspiration, while provoking thoughts on how culture, society, and technology continue to affect creativity.

Playing around with cinemagraphs!

May 30, 2014

A Photography 1 class created their first cinemagraph on Monday. A cinemagraphs is a still photograph where just a bit of repeated movement occurs. They can give the illusion that the viewer is watching a video. Check it out below. More to come in the future!! Thanks to Pavel Artemov '15 who created the first image. The second image was a class effort!

Workshop in Bronze Sculptures

May 25, 2014

Gabriela Spector works with TASIS students sculpting in wax before sending the pieces to the foundry.

In late April, Gabriela Spector, an internationally recognized sculptress, led a workshop in the Ferit Sahenk Fine Arts Center, where IB Visual Art students had the opportunity to find out how to make their very own bronze sculptures. Students learned about a process, perfected during the Renaissance and which initially involves sculpting in wax. The wax models TASIS students made in this workshop found their way to the Perseo Foundry in Mendrisio where they were cast into bronze. Below are photographs of students sculpting in wax and also a number of the final bronze castings.

Vitra: A Swiss Family Business

May 5, 2014

On Thursday, May 1, Rolf Fehlbaum spoke to the TASIS Architecture and Design and Economics classes in the Palmer Cultural Center. Mr.Fehlbaum is on the board of directors of the company his father founded in 1950. The Vitra furniture manufacturing company is located in Basel, Switzerland, and the Vitra Design Museum is located just across the border in Weil-am-Rhein, Germany. The TASIS Architecture and Design classes travel up to Weil each year in October and in January to increase their understanding of contemporary design and architecture.

Mr. Fehlbaum’s talk was inspirational, as he recounted growing up in the midst of some of the greatest designers of the 20th century: Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson, Verner Panton, and others were personal friends of his parents, and members of the Vitra company’s private “stable” of furniture designers. Mr. Fehlbaum also spoke about his passion for contemporary architecture, and the close correlation of architecture with design. Finally, Mr. Fehlbaum addressed the issue of business and profit making. Here, too, his remarks were direct and clear, targeting students whose careers will most likely include business involvement.

The most memorable thing he advised them was to remember that businesses are not just profit-making concerns, but rather, the most successful ones exhibit a deep knowledge of their craft. In the case of Vitra, this means a thorough understanding of chair making, but the same advice goes for any business. His example was of a bakery in Paris where people line up daily to buy bread. “Why do they do this?” he asked. The answer was that the bread is produced by bakers whose detailed, artisanal knowledge of the craft enables them to make the very best bread available. “Of course a business must be profitable”, he said, “but the money is not the only thing that counts.”

Attention to detail, commitment to excellence, deep knowledge of the field, and a commitment to contemporary culture: these principles are all characteristic of the Vitra company, and indeed of Swiss contemporary design.

Rolf Fehlbaum speaks to students and faculty in the Palmer Center.

TASIS students visit Vitra in October 2013.